Last year, the Federal Communications Commission voted to repeal net neutrality, a set of regulations intended to protect internet users. Now, leaders of eight St. Louis co-working spaces are calling on Missouri congressional lawmakers to join national efforts that could reverse the commission’s decision.

Their call came Wednesday as U.S. Sen. Ed. Markey, D-Mass., filed a petition that would force the U.S. Senate to vote on the future of net neutrality. The 2015 regulations bar internet providers from controlling internet speeds, among other things. The Senate must vote by June 12 on whether to allow or block the FCC’s repeal.

What is net neutrality? Read more.

Nebula Coworking owner Jason Deem coordinated with the founders of T-REX, HIVE44, Nexcore, CIC St. Louis, CLAIM, UCity Coworking and TechArtista to write an open letter supporting the measure.

Repealing net neutrality would hurt co-working space clients including small businesses trying to innovate in technology markets and nonprofit organizations seeking social reforms, according to the founders’ letter.

Deem said he was spurred to coordinate the letter by the concerns of small business owners and activists who are members at Nebula.

“The main issue is that the repeal of net neutrality could put small businesses and start-ups at a considerable disadvantage compared to large businesses that could afford to pay more for services,” he said.

The letter is addressed to U.S. Sens. Claire McCaskill and Roy Blunt and U.S. Reps. Lacy Clay and Ann Wagner.

Asked for comment, a representative for Blunt’s referred tothe Republican senator’s  December 2017 statement where he supported repealing net neutrality. Blunt wrote that the net neutrality rules “created a barrier to the investment and innovation we need to grow our economy and close the digital divide between rural towns and bigger cities.”

Democrat McCaskill’s office responded to a request for comment by referring to a statement from January when she co-sponsored a Senate proposal to maintain net neutrality rules. In the statement she said that “consumers should have protected, free, and open access to the online content of their choosing.”

Co-working concerns

The Consumers Council of Missouri is among the concerned Nebula members. The nonprofit group work to inform Missourians about health care, personal finance and home utility issues.

Cara Spencer, executive director of the Council, said the potential for internet providers to block content could jeopardize the nonprofit’s work. Spencer also serves as alderwoman of St. Louis’ 20th ward.

“What happens if the content we put out is not in the best interest of the internet service providers or those that work well with them? Could they block content?” Spencer asked. “This is really a threat not only to consumers but to free speech, or anyone who’s advocating on issues that may not be popular with the folks that can pay for preferential internet access.”

She said net neutrality’s repeal could also make the internet look more like politics, where those with the most money have the ability to exert outsized influence. Spencer said the council is also concerned that if internet providers could charge companies for access fees, those increased costs could be passed on to customers.

FCC chairman Ajit Pai, who voted against the rules in 2015, has argued that repealing net neutrality would instead help consumers by creating more competition and encouraging internet providers to invest in networks in low-income areas.

The letter also urges Missouri’s representatives to reject bills that wouldn’t let states develop independent net neutrality laws and back an amicus brief for a potential lawsuit drafted by U.S. Congresswoman Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., and Markey.

Reps. Clay, a Democrat, and Wagner a Republican, could not be reached for comment on Wednesday afternoon.

http://news.stlpublicradio.org/post/st-louis-co-working-spaces-petition-state-politicians-restore-net-neutrality#stream/0

https://www.eenews.net/energywire/stories/1060073547/

by the Editorial Board for the St. Louis Post-Dispatcth

Ameren Missouri’s cherished rate-reform bill, which has sat dormant in the Missouri House since being passed by the state Senate in mid-February, is meeting 11th-hour challenges — and a threat to force full disclosure of all the money spent to pass it. Missouri consumers’ best hope is for Senate Bill 564 to die before the legislative session ends May 18.

Groups representing both residential and large industrial power users have raised significant doubts about Ameren’s claims that it would benefit consumers by capping rate increases at 2.85 percent per year for residential customers and 2 percent for industrial users.

Opponents argue that changes to the way that the state’s three investor-owned utilities calculate expenses would lead to an effective rate increase of 8 percent to 10 percent — or as much as 20 percent in the view of the Consumers Council of Missouri.

In the Senate, despite political dangers from rate hikes in an election year, a few labor Democrats joined the GOP majority to pass the bill 25-6 in February.

The bill stalled while the House considered its own measure. But as the state’s attention turned to the drama of Gov. Eric Greitens’ upcoming trial in St. Louis, legislative leaders quietly pushed this week for the House to pass the Senate bill without amendments. That would enable it to go back to the Senate for final passage without the threat of a filibuster in the session’s last week.

House leaders indicated Wednesday they were willing to break their promise to allow full and open debate, and to push for a quick vote.

In response, Sen. Doug Libla, R-Poplar Bluff, drafted a letter to Missouri Public Service Commissioner Daniel Hall to immediately require the three investor-owned utilities to disclose all of their political donations and lobbyist spending since 2014. In February, Sen. Rob Schaaf, R-St. Joseph, calculated that the utilities had contributed $900,000 to legislators.

Greitens received about $180,000 from Ameren alone, not counting any undisclosed donations to his “dark money” committee. The PSC can order utilities to disclose dark money contributions.

Even with rate caps in place, SB 564 would allow utilities to potentially make tens of millions more each year from a tool called “Plant In-Service Accounting.” Almost every dollar spent on capital investments could be quickly charged to customers without having to gain PSC approval. Ameren argues that it needs the change to modernize its electric grid, but this accounting tool also would allow it to quickly charge consumers for maintaining the old grid.

Ameren also is holding hostage some $133 million a year in tax savings from the federal tax cut bill that should be returned to customers in the form of a 4.9 percent rate cut. Ameren has done so in Illinois but says Missouri regulators tie its hands. This is not a posture that inspires trust.